Saying NO to Toilets

Friday May 13th 2011

 Khayelitsha residents say ‘no’ to toilets

A fight over toilets is simmering at Khayelitsha’s YAB informal settlement.Last year the City of Cape Town asked residents to identify land where new toilets for the community could be situated, and an open space next to Vaphi Street was identified.

But when city contractors tried to install ten new flush toilets there five weeks ago, residents living in formal houses in nearby Y-Section, chased them away.

The problem was that residents who live in houses in Y-Section on the other side of Vaphi Street close to the space identified for the toilets, don’t want them there.

“The toilets were close to my house,” said Malixole Gabuze, “I don’t have a problem with toilets but I know for a fact that they’re not going to clean them.”

Gabuze said he would end up having stinking toilets near his front door and he would fight against that.

“The city must look for another place, not next to my house,” he said.

Another man living near where the toilets were to be installsed, Wiseman Ndabazandile, said the space where the city planned to install the toilets was used for meetings.

“No-one has a right to put toilets in other peoples’ street. We’re using this space to attend our meetings. We don’t know who gave them permission but we were not consulted about this,” said Ndabazandile.

YAB residents committee chairperson Unathi Mabengwana, said the city had asked residents to identify land where they could install toilets.

“I really don’t understand why these people are opposing us saying the land belongs to them. They know we are in need of toilets,” said Mabengwana.

He said the residents committee had been “begging” the people staying near Vaphi Street but “they refuse to listen”.

“They’re calling us names, swearing and saying we are messy people (ixelegu) because we live in an informal settlement.”

Y-Section residents’ committee chairperson Zabamna Stefanisi, said: “Those toilets will be next to our houses and they’re going to affect our children’s health. They can’t just put toilets next to our street.”

http://westcapenews.com/?p=2850 

Witchcraft and Sangoma's

Friday May 13th 2011

Burglars use muti to make victims sleep

 

A self-confessed burglar demonstrates how he lets sleep-inducing smoke into his victim's house before breaking in and stealing their belongings. 

Smoke from the burning tail of a hyena, a pinch of soil from a grave, and a secret mix of herbs puts people inside a house into such a deep sleep that criminals can steal their belongings at leisure.It sounds like urban legend but a self-confessed burglar from Khayelitsha says he buys the mixture, which is ground into a powder, from a local sangoma and “it works like magic”.

The 26-year-old robber, who gave his name as Gift Klass, said he rolled the powder in a tube of paper and after lighting it, let the smoke waft under the door of the house he was targeting.

He said the best time to do it was when the family was sitting down together to watch TV.

“That way you know everyone is in the lounge.”

He said within two minutes of letting the smoke into the house the occupants would all fall asleep.

Klass said it didn’t matter how long it took for them to break in through the door or how much time they spent in the house stealing belongings, the family would only wake up in the morning.

Two sangomas in Khayelitsha confirmed that such a muti existed and that it was being used by criminals.

Sangoma Mtimkhulu Radebe from Khayelitsha B-section, said the powder was made by using soil from a grave mixed with incense and herbs he refused to name.

Except for confirming its existence, Radebe refused to give more information, saying his ancestors would be angered.

Sangoma Duma Kude from Harare, Khayelitsha, said the powder worked best when mixed with a hyena’s tail.

“A small part from a hyena’s tail can make you sleep like you’re dead,” said Kude.

But he said hyena’s tails were scarce in the Western Cape, with a whole tail costing about R30 000.

Asked if the muti did not have a distinctive smell that would warn people they were being targeted, he said sangomas put incense in the mixture to neutralise the smell so that people would not notice it in time.

Real gangsters used the mixture with hyena’s tale while “little skollies” use the cheaper version that only had grave soil and herbs in it, he said.

He said besides making those who inhaled it sleep deeply, it had no side effects.

Khayelitsha resident Lwando Luvivi, 35, said he’d been a victim of the muti in December.

He said he fell asleep while alone in the house watching TV, and was absolutely positive he had locked his door.

When he woke up in the morning his door had been kicked in and his audio-visual equipment stolen.

“They took all of my music system and TV. I don’t know what happened. They left me holding the remote control.”

Luvivi said he knew of other people who had the same experience.

Khayelitsha Lingelethu police station spokesperson Siphokazi Mawisa said she had not heard of the muti being used to commit robberies. 

http://westcapenews.com/?p=2679

Midvaal residents receive 1000 toilets

May 12 2011

 The first batch of 1000 toilets were handed over to residents of the Sicelo Shiceka informal settlement in Midvaal, the Gauteng local government and housing department.

Note: the toilets are wooden frames with corrugated iron sheets - exactly the same as the Democratic Allliance supplied and that were broken down........

The first batch of 1000 toilets were handed over to residents of the Sicelo Shiceka informal settlement in Midvaal, the Gauteng local government and housing department said on Thursday.

“Gauteng MEC for local government and housing Humphrey Mmemezi handed over the first batch of 1000 toilets after visiting the area last Tuesday,” said department spokesperson Motsamai Motlhaolwa. 

Malope Ntsani, 39, who lives in the area, would no longer have to monitor her children when they go to the toilet - which was, until now, an open pit. 

Mmemezi committed to provide the toilets - in the hotly contested Democratic Alliance-led municipality - after a walk-about in the area. 

The ANC has vowed to win back the municipality in the upcoming local government elections.

“I realised after the walk about in the area that there are no toilets and people use nearby bushes and open pit toilets to relieve themselves. I made a commitment that we will get funds so that we can buy toilets for the community. There are also only nine taps for the community of 4000 shacks,” he said. 

The department had secured R5.7-million to provide the 1000 toilets which would be cleaned twice a week. 

“We can't allow municipalities to deprive people of basic services,” he said. 

He said the delivery of the toilets had nothing to do with the May 18 polls, and further promised to provide 438 houses for the residents of the informal settlement.

http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/midvaal-residents-receive-1000-toilets-1.1068249

Gory Details of Ritual Killing of 10 year old.

2011-05-12 

W A R N I N G -------GRAPHIC READING -

A man accused of killing a Soshanguve schoolgirl told a judge the child was still alive when her womb was ripped from her body during a ritual killing. 

This emerged in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Thursday.

Brian Mangwale earlier told another magistrate one of his friends strangled the child, and she was already dead when he cut out her womb and removed her breast, which he sold to a sangoma for R3 000.

Family members wept as details of the last hours of 10-year-old Masego Kgomo's life emerged.

Statements to the police and two magistrates, in which Mangwale gave vastly conflicting accounts of the murder, were read out in court after Judge Billy Mothle ruled they were admissible as evidence.

This was despite Mangwale's claims that police had tortured him and never explained his rights to him.

He denied ever pointing out Masego's decomposed body in the veld behind the Soshanguve train station eight days after she disappeared on December 31 2009.

A policeman earlier testified that Mangwale appeared to have been possessed by the spirits of ancestors when he voluntarily pointed out the body in the veld behind the Soshanguve railway station.

The court had to adjourn for a while when Garankuwa Magistrate Johan Jantjes started weeping while reading Mangwale's statement.

Mangwale told him he and a group of friends had taken the young girl to a traditional healer in Soshanguve, who gave them a concoction to drink before he dragged the crying Masego into a room.

The girl was still crying when the traditional healer returned with her about ten minutes later and started sprinkling something on her.

Mangwale claimed the traditional healer had then returned with a knife and a clay pot and ordered Masego to lie down on a bed.

When she refused, she was forcibly held down while the traditional healer stabbed her in the stomach, put his hand inside her body and removed something that looked like a ball, which he put into the clay pot.

He also removed her left breast.

Mangwale told the magistrate he heard the others had wrapped the child's body in plastic and drank muti again before dumping her body in the veld on the instructions of the traditional healer.

Hid body parts

A Soshanguve magistrate testified that Mangwale had just a week earlier made a statement to her, in which he said he and a group of friends had taken Masego along went they went out drinking.

This was after the child had earlier in the day volunteered to go and buy cooldrink for him at a tuck shop.

He claimed three of his friends had raped the girl in his absence, but he had not reported it to the police because he knew of a woman "who wanted a girl".

He told the magistrate he and his friends had taken the child to a bushy area, where his friend Nunu strangled her when she wanted to scream.

According to his first statement, the girl was already dead when Masego slit open her stomach and removed her womb and breast, which he put into a plastic bag.

He said he had hidden the body parts behind his home before helping Masego's family search for her, but had sold it to a woman in Mabopane for R3000 the next day.

While pointing out the scene of the crime to police, Mangwale claimed he and his friends had a deal to hand over Masego to a traditional healer for body parts.

In that statement, he also claimed the girl was still alive when the traditional healer cut open her stomach.

Mangwale will take the stand in his defence on Friday.

MAY THIS POOR CHILD REST IN PEACE

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Gory-details-of-ritual-killing-emerge-20110512 

Ons Sal Dit Orleef

Here are the lyrics to Steve’s song:

Ons sal dit oorleef - Steve Hofmeyr

“Daar’s 'n land en 'n volk in een taal gedoop

Met gebede en buskruit en bloed gekoop

Wat weer en weer van sy knie af moet streef

Ons sal dit oorleef...

Uit die kake van oormag deur die vuur op ons werf

Staan die engele by ons vroue en die kinders wat sterf

Elke grafsteen een standbeeld vir die wat bly leef

Ons sal dit oorleef...

My hart klop toktokkie waar hy breek vir my volk

Voor die kakie kanon of die k****r se dolk

Dit maak nie meer saak nie waar ons ons begeef

Ons sal dit oorleef...

Ek lig my oë tot die berge op

Waar sal my hulp tog vandaan kan kom

Ag my God jou woorde lê deur my geweef

Ons sal dit oorleef...

Ek staan vandag op jou plaas ou vriend

Daar hang stof oor die stilte sovêr ek kan sien

Maar die geeste van gister sal more herleef

Ons sal dit oorleef

Some of the words in English.

My heart beats toktokkie where it breaks for my people
against the English (Khaki) canons or the Kaffir's dagger
It matters none where we now are heading
We will survive this ordeal …

I raise my eyes to the mountains
ask where will my help arrive from?
Oh my Lord your words are woven within me...
We will survive this ordeal…